In a printing system a print job queue exist. The print job queue is an ordered queue of print jobs which are scheduled to be printed on the printing system. The ordering of the queue may be according to an ordering criterion defaulted for the printing system. An ordering criterion may be a first in first out ordering. Print jobs are submitted to the printing system. A typical print job has print job settings describing the print job and used during printing of the print job to set printing parameters of the printing system. One of the print job settings of a print job may be a proof print job setting indicating whether or not the print job needs to be proofed before printing. When a print job needs to be proofed before printing the actual print job, a proof print job will be created and printed. A proof print job is a trial print job on at least one sheet in order to check and/or correct corresponding print job settings before producing a copy or a number of copies of the print job.
Nowadays a proof print job is printed and proofed. After the proofing the corresponding print job is scheduled at the end of the print job queue and printed when the print job reaches the head of the print job queue. This way of working is not very productive since printing stops when the proof print job is proofed and there may be a superfluously large time between proofing of the proof print job and printing of the corresponding print job.
According to other prior art a print job is scheduled and labeled to be proofed. When the print job arrives at the head of the print job queue, the proof print job is printed, the printing system stops printing and the proof print has to be checked. When the check is done and positive, the printing system resumes printing, i.e. with printing of the print job. This way of working comprises a print stop and leads to a reduction of the productivity of the printing system.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a printing system that permits to increase productivity of the printing system with regard to proof print jobs.